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The Lord of the Rings (50th Anniversary Edition) | 
| Author: J.r.r. Tolkien
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Category: Book
List Price: $85.00
Buy Used: $42.50
You Save: $42.50 (50%)
New (37) Used (13) Collectible (1) from $42.50
Rating:  171 reviews
Sales Rank: 1472
Media: Leather Bound
Edition: 1
Pages: 1184
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4.5
Dimensions (in): 10 x 6.6 x 2.7
ISBN: 0618517650
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780618517657
ASIN: 0618517650
Publication Date: October 21, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The Fellowship of the Ring, part one of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic masterpiece, first reached these shores on October 21, 1954, arriving, as C. S. Lewis proclaimed, "like lightning from a clear sky." Fifty years and nearly one hundred million American readers later comes a beautiful new one-volume collector's edition befitting the stature of this crown jewel of our list. With a text fully corrected under the supervision of Christopher Tolkien to meet the author's exacting wishes, two large-format fold-out maps, a ribbon placemarker, gilded page edges, a color insert depicting Tolkien's own paintings of the Book of Mazarbul and exceptionally elegant and sturdy overall packaging housed within an attractive slipcase, this edition is the finest we've ever produced.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 166 more reviews...
 The story is a long tale, mostly very good November 26, 2008
Norman Strojny (western desert of Utah)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
"The Lord of the Rings" is an epic fantasy of magic and a battle between the forces of evil and those of good. It is a long tale, in three parts, and it is mostly good. However, there are portions in parts two and three that are somewhat boring. Part three is .. I guess the best word is: dark. This is not some cute tale for young children. This is a myth-like, complicated, story for adults.
You see: Bilbo, the Hobbit brought a ring back from his adventure, many years ago. Now, Gandolf finds that "Bilbo's ring" is one of a set of rings and is magically very powerful. Gandolf decides that it must be destroyed. But, there is only one way to destroy it and a long and dangerous journey will be necessary. For the next several hundred pages we trek through that difficult journey.
I am glad that I read the story. It is quite good. However, the tendency to drag along, more and more slowly as the story moves on, is not a plus.
While this printing is reasonably nice, the price seems steep for what the customer gets.
Buy it. Read it. I enjoyed it.
Ripped map corners October 28, 2008
N. Bolinger (Jacksonville, FL USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is so great. I'm just about at the end and haven't found the first typo. The leather cover looks fantastic and comes with a protective box and a ribbon place marker. The only reason I didn't give it a perfect score is because both the maps ripped a tiny little bit when I tried to open them, even though I was very careful. Other than that though, it's great, and should last for many years.
 Very nice edition to have October 13, 2008
Surendar Balakrishnan
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This review is only about the `50th anniversary edition' and not about the master work of J.R.R.Tolkien.
I don't see any issues with the quality of the book. Like few other reviewers mentioned, the folded map is glued together and you need to take little care while viewing it for the first time without damage. That is not an issue or a reason to give this excellent edition a poor rating. Most of the deluxe editions won't be friendly to read due to unusual size and weight. People buy them because they adore the content and feel proud to have them in their bookshelves. I find this book very comfortable to read also. The paper quality is awesome, very smooth and silky and gives a very nice feeling when you read.
The UK edition of this book from Harper Collins appears to be of superior quality but the price is 150% more then this US edition. I personally like the US edition more due to the more flexible paper used which enables a better reading. Also UK edition don't' come with maps and also no red color font used.
If you want to experience reading `Lord of the Rings' never like before, then don't think again, go for this edition even if you already have other editions with you.
Smites every othe piece of modern fantasy October 12, 2008
Kathy J. Olson
As far as this edition goes, I had a great experience. It's a steal for just over $50. Bit I'm not here to review this edition, I'm here to review Tolkien's masterpiece. Here it goes:
The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien is in my opinion one of the single greatest books ever written. Tolkien spent nearly ten years writing and compiling the book, and every word of it is so incredibly descriptive and perfect, that the ten years was time well spent. Every sentence of Tolkien's masterpiece is precisely written and full of life. The book comes closer to the saying "a picture's worth a thousand words" than any other book I've ever read, describing every picture he wants you to see as vibrantly as humanly possible. For these reasons, this book is quite faultless, and it never fails to leave out any details.
It's easy to tell that this is a book of a higher order, written completely out of pure devotion to describing this immaculately-composed world of Middle-Earth. Many writers try to envision their fictional worlds, but Tolkien does much more than that: for him, his world is real, and every aspect of Middle Earth is as fully explored and depicted as the real world. Tolkien created a full world all his own, complete with many new languages and alphabets that he invented, family trees, a complete history, and absolutely every other detail you could imagine.
After reading The Lord of the Rings, in addition to complete astonishment, I also feel a bit sad, but not for the reasons you may expect. I feel unhappy because I know I will probably never read Harry Potter or Eragon again, because the extensiveness, descriptiveness and overall perfection of Tolkien's works doesn't only Harry Potter or Eragon to shame in my mind, it downright smites them (in a good way). Every piece of modern (and overly praised) fantasy that I've ever read is like a string with several, or sometimes many other strings hanging off of it. However, Tolkien's Middle Earth is like a complete net, extending in all directions- fully explored, rich and resonant in every way.
In every other fictional novel I have ever read, names appear to be created and applied because they sound either good in the context of which they are given. In Middle Earth, names are conceived based on race, language and tradition. For example, many names of those who live in Rohan have the prefix eo, because eo belongs to part of the old word for `horse' in the now-unused language of the inhabitants of Rohan. Horses are the most predominant way of life in Rohan. Nothing in Middle Earth is random or without a history. Every alphabet, language, name, family tree and everything else has a story.
There is, however, one main aspects that a reader may not enjoy. As I said earlier, Middle Earth is like a net, going out in every direction. For this reason, and the fact that nearly everything from language to history is unique and new, it is an exceptionally difficult book to dive right into and start reading. Take a look at these sentences from the Appendices (page 1035) "After Ardamin the Kings took the sceptre in names of the Numenorian (or Adunaic) tongue: Ar-Adunakhor, Ar-Zimrathon, Ar-Sakalthor, Ar-Gimilzor, Ar-Inziladun. Inziladun repented the ways of the Kings and changed his name to Tar Palantir `The Farsighted'. His daughter should have been the fourth Queen, Tar Miriel, but the King's nephew usurped the scepter and became Ar-Parazon the Golden, last King of the Numenorians." This definitely goes to show how incredibly complex the book can be at times. To read the book, it takes a lot of concentration and willpower to effectively read and comprehend.
Other than the occasional extremely complex segments in the book, and the amount of work and concentration it takes to read the book, I believe everyone that is interested in any form of fantasy should pick up this book and give it a try. However, I think if everyone did so, JK Rowling would be broke, and so would every other modern fantasy writer. It is incredibly deep and utterly flawless, and its beautiful and vivid descriptions never cease to amaze. I would recommend this book to anyone willing to give it enough time, patience and respect to comprehend all 1031 pages of it.
For now... October 4, 2008
Ricardo T. de Melo (Sao Paulo, SP - Brasil)
For now I just can say that it is a primorous job. And it must be said that it is a complete work of perfection, an item of beauty.
Henceforth I have to begin my reading.
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